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Paladin builds
Paladins builds can be either Holy, Protection or Retribution. Holy is towards healing, Protection towards tanking and Retribution towards melee DPS Holy Healing Build (43/11/7) For those looking to be a healer, Holy is the only viable talent spec. In raids, a Holy Paladin (sometimes known as Healadins) can serve as the primary healer for his or her group. A Paladin fits into this role by staying back and healing, and thanks to his or her ability to wear plate, the Paladin can be one of the most efficient healers in the raid group, if played well. Also there is element of doing damage while being in Holy build (called Shockadin by some) Dps/Healing Build (40/0/21). Getting gear with +Spell Crit% improves this build's DPS, as it focuses on Holy Shock and Seal/Judgement of Righteousness for DPS while still being able to adequately support a team with healing and debuffing. Compared to Retribution builds, the DPS is relatively weak, though the ability to heal remains in tact, even in raids and PvP encounters. Build with a focus on PvP healing. PvP Healer (41/20/9) This build concentrates more on survivability, if for some reason your paladin doesn't have enough already. Survivability Build (47/14/0) Raid/PvP/Survive Build (42/19/0) This build focuses on using flash of light healing more then holy light healing due to not having the lights grace talent, the upside to this spec is improved concentration aura for some boss fights and pvp. Josh's Paladin Healing Build http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=sVxhbgzGeotVMtZx (43/13/5) - This build works wonderful as either an arena healer or a Raid or Instance healer. This build works well because theres a bit of everything that could help out any situation... There are the 13 points into Protection tree which could help out in arena a great amount because the 5 points into Redoubt for when you are getting beat on by a Melee class and need an extra helpful use for your shield, the 2 points into Guardian's Favor works well in raids for protecting someone from a certain situation or in Arena to protect your caster so they can full out damage on that melee target or so you can Shield yourself with your own shield spell and then Blessing of Protection your partner to throw yourselves some heals. The five points into Toughness increases the Paladin's Armor Value by a nice 10%, because Plate didn't have enough armor before, and as usual, Blessing of Kings is everyones best friend in any situation. As for the points into the Retribution tree, they are an excellent help because you can increase the damage of your Rogue, Warrior, or Shaman friends, or if they want, throw them a Blessing of Kings for that 10% more into their stats. As for the points in the Holy tree, their pretty self explaining on account of if your using this build your a Holy Healing Paladin, there are a few talents here you could mix up or take away from to put into a different tree according to your liking, other than that, all is well. Protection Basic Tank This is the default protection spec for ALL paladins to follow should they want to tank 70+ instances or raid end game as a tank. The other builds shown here are solo/levelling/hybrid builds, which have their uses, however this one is aimed specifically at tanking the hardest and best that a paladin can achieve. The large majority of players also agree that focus heavily into the protection tree, without the intention of tanking or the need for extra survivability, makes little sense, since it gimps both healing and DPS. The reason the Holy talent tree has been left as an X and overall is missing 5 points is because the last 5 points are not strictly needed anyway. Depending on progression, guild spot, overall gear or personal preference these last 5 points are usually spent in Divine Intellect to boost the overall mana or in Precision/Guardian's Favour to increase chance to hit (for more aggro) and reduced cooldown on Blessing of Protection (handy in a number of situations). Some people may prefer however to spend the points in Retirbution to reduce Judgement times etc. The most important thing however are the 56 talents that have been selected as the base build. To have any chance of tanking properly as a Paladin these 56 are MOST crucial. Redoubt and Shield Specialization are essential for damage mitigation. Imp Righteous Fury is essential for holding and producing aggro. Anticipation significantly increases your defense skill which contributes to the necessary 490+ Defense Rating that all tanks require to stand a chance end game. Ardent Defender, Sacred Duty, and Combat Expertise are highly neceassry to mitigation and stamina. Lastly, 5 points in Deflection for the 5% increased parry. Defense rating adds to the chance to dodge/block/parry and stacking another 5% is greatly desirable but far too often overlooked by people creating Protection Paladins. Follow these exact 56 points and gear up appropriately and you will have little trouble tanking and progessing. Basic Talents (x/46/10) 5-man Tank This build is optimized for tanking 5-mans at any point up to 70, with the protection talents added first, at least until level 50. Option 1: All the basic talents, with 5 points in one-handed weapon specialization, which effectively increases all threat by 5-9%, as well as increasing dps by 5%. Tank, option 1 (0/49/12) Option 2: Ignore one-handed weapon specialization, and put the extra five points in the retribuiton tree to obtain vindication (not greatly suited to heroics/raiding due to immunities) and improved retribution aura, which increases threat and dps when trash-tanking. Tank, option 2 (0/44/17) Option 3: Use your gear, extra 10% mana and 6% health to pick up the lost dps and parry chance from Retribution and spend 14 points in Holy. You will be 10% more likely hold aggro when others are feared or disoriented with Unyielding Faith. You can heal unterrupted (70%+35%) with Spiritual Focus and a quick switch of Concentration Aura to yourself or others during those nasty boss AOEs, in case your healer can't keep up (as it is not always easy to get a good DPS group with a good healer). Not to mention you can use Lay on Hands almost twice as often (almost on every boss in instances instead of every other boss). Combine with a good CC pull and use of Divine Intervention, you can say good bye to the other half of the instance wipes. This build will also give you edge on pally's survivability as a PVP tank and in solo PVE. Tank, option 3 (14/47/0) PvP Protection This build focuses on extreme toughness while dealing damage to attackers by Blessing of Sanctuary and Holy Shield. With reckoning you will also have a fairly good DPS even with a 1 hander, especially if the enemy is beating on you. The enemy will realize that they are dealing very little damage to you while they are getting hit hard by an unseen force. Note that Holy Shield and Blessing of Sanctuary will deal damage to hunters' shots that are blocked as well. The real weakness of this build is that it lacks the healing power often necessary in PvP, and, without focused melee attacks on you, you do minimal dps 'or' healing. This plays heavily into the hands of casters, since you cannot effectively negate damage, dps, or heal yourself against them. Obviously, the trick of this build is to get the melee enemies to attack you, which, against intelligent players, doesn't usually happen. Do so by 'aggroing' enemy players either by coming close and attacking them, or by healing nearby friends just to get their attention. Toss an Avenger's Shield either to close the distance between kiters or to slow down enemies that are running away. Note that this build also allows you to tank PvE as well, with marginal spot healing. Ideal gear for tanking requires +STA, +DEF, and +Spell Damage. PvP Tank (10/44/7) PvE Solo/Duo/Off-Healing (Survivadin) A build with heavy emphasis on the Paladin's ability to survive against near-impossible odds. The deep delve into Holy provides more than enough healing power to be effective in soloing, duoing, and off-healing (Or main healing with proper gear) in instances. The Protection talents work mostly on making the Paladin as hard to kill as possible, including the potential for a 70%+ block chance, heavy near-death 80%+ damage reduction, and the coveted 'uncrushable' status in end-game instances. Reckoning and Redoubt are produced almost constantly when fighting swarms of enemies (that can hardly harm you), which adds a very useful damage and defense bonus. Holy Shield and Blessing of Sanctuary bring a nasty kickback to everyone you block, and Improved Righteous Fury turns that into a constant aggro-generating Maelstrom that, if given a few moments to generate proper threat, can make aggro loss a thing of the past. Stuns every 45 seconds keep the biggest enemy out as long as possible, and Sacred Duty gives ten seconds of immortality for when things get rough; With proper mana regeneration, this is more than enough time to turn the tide of the most desperate battles. The Holy tree's Illumination + Divine Favor provide a critical heal every two minutes at a mere 40% cast cost, and since against normal monsters you will rarely have to heal more than once every two minutes this makes a majority of your self-heals cheap criticals. Spiritual Focus makes healing in any battle a cinch, and finally Unyielding Faith provides a startling surprise for Warlocks who think they have you figured out as well as helping to prevent pesky trash mobs from knocking you off your mount when you just feel like ignoring them and turning in your freshly soloed Group quest. The main tactic for this build is to keep Mana regeneration high; Luckily, the Paladin comes equipped with several abilities that make this easy even with semi-low Intelligence and Spirit. Fighting with Blessing of Wisdom on and Judgement of Wisdom blasted at your enemies keeps the mana flow strong, and with Seal of the Crusader to back it up the regens come faster and Reckoning is guaranteed to not waste a single deft blow. Keeping Improved Righteous Fury on at all times adds a hefty +6% damage reduction, and on the off-chance you get below 35% life Ardent Defender is ready to keep you alive for some much needed heals and rebuffs. Retribution Aura makes long lasting battles even more painful to those silly enough to think they can break your defense. Being a wall of sheer Adamantium gives more than enough time to throw a heal to a friend while tanking (outside of instances of course), which your enemies will only translate as a heavy threat increase. Some people may choose to take 'Divine Intellect' instead of 'Divine Strength' for the first five talent points; This is purely playstyle based and the core of the build is highly effective with either choice. Survivadin (21/40/0) AoE Grinding Aside from mages, Paladins have the highest potential for AoE grinding, combining their incredible survivability against melee attacks with talent procs that occur when they are the victim of enemy attacks. This build is mainly viable against mainly melee targets only, preferably those that don't disarm (weapon chain is useful), crowd-control, run, or use magic/non-physical ranged attacks. To make this spec viable, Holy Shield and its talent improvement must be obtained. A shield spike, and any other item that causes damage when stuck, or extra weapon swings, is very useful as well. Paladins specced this way can singlehandedly take out 5-6 mobs or 2-3 elites of equal level, and often with full health and mana, due to seal/judgement of light/wisdom. AoE grinding (0/33/0) Group Agro Tank (AOE tank) Designed to do what a paladin tank should, which is use reactive damage (and consecrate) rather than direct damage to hold agro. I skipped spell warding because Reckoning is better than spell warding/imp hammer of justice. I picked up Vindication for elites and non-heroic bosses, and improved judgement for throwing a crusader judgement on the next elite after one dies. Finally, improved retribution aura is amazing for holding agro. This spec gives decent mitigation with a total of 9 defensive talents, 11 if you include moves. 0/44/17 Retribution (Holy Warrior) Paladin Leveling (Solo) Build This build maxes out the damage output of you paladin and reduces downtime, enabling fast leveling and soloing. Takes you all the way to 70. Holy 5/5 Divine Strength Protection 5/5 Improved Devotion Aura 3/3 Precision Retribution 5/5 Improved Blessing of Might 5/5 Benediction 2/2 Improved Judgement 5/5 Deflection 3/3 Vindication 5/5 Conviction 1/1 Seal of Command 2/2 Eye for an Eye 2/2 Improved Retribution Aura 2/3 Crusade 3/3 Two-Handed Weapon Specialization 5/5 Vengeance 3/3 Sanctified Judgement 1/1 Repentance 5/5 Fanaticism 1/1 Crusader Strike Level 70 (5/8/48) Retribution This spec is heavily in-debt to Judgments and Seals, since Fanaticism adds +15% crit to all Judgments. Sanctity Aura helps with Holy Damage. The idea is, more or less, to go in from afar and use Repentance, Judgment of Crusader, Crusader Strike, Seal of Command, Hammer of Justice, Judgment of Command, Crusader Strike. This should devastate an opponent or mob whether it be PvP or PvE. As a Retribution Paladin in a raid group make sure to have Improved Sanctity Aura for the +2% to all damage done for the group, and Sanctified Seals for the +3% to crit the Judged opponent from all sources. The passive ability Spiritual Attunement helps with mana conservation. Don't forget to also use Righteous Defense to peel off any mobs off the healers have drawn. We're made of plate so we can take more punishment than they, until a proper tank comes along to deal with it. This build should hold its own in PvP and PvE alike. Basic Ret Build (5/8/48) PvE/Raiding Retribution Unlike most typical Retribution talent specs, the target of this spec is to maximize your paladin's efficiency in 5-man instances and raids, rather than leaning towards PvP with talents such as Eye for an Eye and Divine Purpose which are not included in this spec. Blessing of Kings, Improved Seal of the Crusader and Improved Sanctity Aura are your raid-friendly talents, giving you the chance to benefit not only yourself, but your entire raid's efficiency. http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=sxZxGzZVf0tbcuiIot Note that Pursuit of Justice is merely a suggestion since many bosses in raids have a veriaty of AoE spells which would make any additional spell resistance handy. This talent is typically replaced with Vindication but note that many mobs and bosses, especially in raid instances, are immune to it, narrowing its effect to mostly solo'ing needs. Critadin This spec's main focus is on the Retribution Tree, although it invests in the early talents of the Holy Tree and Protection Tree to gain both a strength and armor bonus. This build is meant for Paladins who are more interested in dealing damage rather than playing a great role in a group or in PvP. While this build does have its weaknesses, it does make the Paladin have a much greater chance to be a threat on the DPS scales. This build is now a PvE and PvP build since the release of patch 2.3. Heavy Ret (5/8/48) Heavy Critadin This spec's main focus is on the Retribution Tree while using either 2-Handed weapons, or 1-Handed weapons with a shield. It invests (like in the Critadin tree) in the early talents of the Holy Tree and Protection Tree to gain both a strength and armor bonus. This build is meant for Paladins who are more interested in dealing damage with or without shield. The tree with a shield gives the paladin good crit damage with a good tanking ability (redoubt bonus). The tree without a shield offers the paladin good crit damage and the toughness talent makes the paladin last longer while still dealing heavy damage. Heavy crit(with shield/1h weap) (5/13/43) Heavy crit (without shield / 2hand weap) (5/12/44) Rekabution Paladin This spec uses an almost equal balance between the protection tree and retribution tree. This build give a lot of armor, but at the same time lets the paladin deal damage effectively. This build makes it so you don't have to stop your damage dealing to heal as often. It is best against non-caster players, and even more specifically rogues. Reckoning is the main bonus of using this build, and a lot of the talents leading up to the abilities at the end of the tree are variable, such as 2h weapon specialization if you decide to use a 1h. This build will almost guarantee you a win in any evenly matched 1 on 1 PvP battle. Drop Judgment of the Crusader, activate Seal of Command and wait for reckoning to activate. Once it does, bubble (due to Sacred Duty you are free from any attack slowing effects.) and just lay waste to your opponent. If they aren’t finished by the time your bubble is over, pally stun them and if they are still alive wait for your health to drop, use Repentance and heal. The primary judgment you will use is Crusader, the primary blessing Might, the primary aura Devotion and the primary seal is Command. This spec works better with a faster weapon, as you would get all 4 reckoning strikes. (Note that with the primary seal being Command, this tree is not valid, because 1) Seal of Command can only proc on the first hit of Reckoning, so Reckoning doesn't raise the proc chance, 2) This tree doesn't go far enough into Ret for Crusader strike, which actually makes Seal of Command valid, due to giving an extra attack, aand therefore more proc chance, and 3) Reckoning only works effectively with a fast weapon, and Seal of Command generally likes slower weapons, due to raising the proc chance. Also without Seal of the Crusader on, it's hard to find a 2h weapon with a 2.0 or faster speed.) Rekabution Build (0/27/34) PVP/PVE/Raid/Arena/Battleground Retadin This build consists of mostly retribution talents. With vital talents in Holy for healing spell interruption and fear resist, 10% Strength, and 4% Intellect, slightly increasing mana reserves and spell crit. The talents in retribution are pretty standard, though with sanctified judgment to basically give you free judgments.(No cost of MP so long as they aren’t resisted.) Then Imp Judgment to decrease the cool down by two seconds, which may not seem like a lot, but in battles that 2 second cool down decrease, can be the difference between life and death. Buff up with improved might. Starting a battle with a stun a judgment of the crusader, crusader strike, then stun, then seal of command is a pretty good idea, you will most likely get them down to half, unless they are stocked on Health, or they are a clothie, in which case they are almost dead. You can stack your stuns with the Seal of Command judgment quite well, as Seal of Command judgment does the most damage when target is incapacitated. Its best to try to stun target or repentance before you judge with Seal of Command, if the target has Judgment of crusader on them, the damage will be huge, especially with imp sanctity aura, not to mention a stack of 3 vengeance (+5% Damage dealt x3 = +15% damage dealt) thats if your crit rates are high enough to get you those fast enough in a battle (within the first one or two attacks.) You'd be surprised at how hard it can be to get that combo in though (Stun, SealofCrusader, Judge, SealofCommand, Crusader, Stun, Judge.) especially on warlocks and other heavy CC and stunning classes. But the bubble solves that. Sometimes I haven't bothered with Seal of Crusader judgement, and will open a fight with a stun and Seal of Command judgement, to build up my Vengeance faster. Add up all those % Damage done and you get +57% To all damage (holy+physical) dealt, with a good critial strike rate, good strength, you will hit EASILY for 1000+ damage PER melee attack or 2k+ crit (granted you have a decent 2H Weapon.) So, taking this into account, a crusader strike, with a standard melee attack at nearly the same time, with a stun and jugement straight afterwards, can seriously add up to around 8000 damage IF everything crits (2k for each melee hit, 1.5k for the additional effects of Seal of Command, and Crusader strike, and 1.8k+ for the Judgement of Command on the stunned target 2k+2k+1.5k+1.5k+1.8k = 8.8k damage.) (20% chance to crit on melee and spells if you are the best pally ever, and 5 chances to crit, so 0.2x5=1...>_> 1% chance of this happening every 30 seconds average when your stun and judgement are both up, along with Crusader Strike. Also don't forget command has to proc, cutting the chances down to about 0.15ish. This may happen once a month if you're lucky. Go do something less risky, like soloing 2 70 plate wearing elites at once. As an unspecced rogue.) Rare, but it happens. Will one shot most classes. Having said that it does average out, it depends on the stacking of vengeance, thier resilance, armor, etc, and whether or not you use Avenging Wrath, the average is more like 2-4k per burst of damage. However with this build, and at least GOOD gear, you will be able to take ANYTHING down in 1v1 if you do it right, and even take two people on if your getting double-teamed in a battleground. Hence the spell interruption talents. The idea of this build is to charge in there, deal massive burst damage, and be able to sustain yourself, or even others (especially in 2v2 arena) and survive. To PVE / Raid with this spec, its incredibly easy, use the same tricks, except replace the Seal of Command with Seal of Vengeance. (Paladins answer to PVE) The difference is the damage is less bursty, and therefore pulls less agro. Though you can still stack vengeance 3 times very easy, and do impressive damage. Also, its effect of dealing YOU the user damage each time you DEAL damage is a good way of chipping health off to make you eligible for small or chain heals, with spiritual attunement, thus giving you a steady flow of MP to throw seals and so on at the targets. In PVE also as you do not need to stun to do extra damage, reserve your stuns for trouble, or CC. Retadin Build (14/0/47) SotC/Reckoning Warrior Gear Build IMPORTANT: GET A WEAPON WITH 3.3 OR FASTER SPEED This spec is based completely around attack power, melee damage, and attack power, because Holy damage takes a lot of mana. The downside is it's Ret, and people won't be delighted to have you in instance with them. For Soloing and PvP, though, it's fine. Alright, the basic strategy with this spec is to start by using the proper defensive (Devo or a resistance) aura for the situation, then Judge Crusader for crit chance, then judge widom later, for when you're healing, then put on Seal of the Crusader, which is most likely the most underrated Seal, and possibly most underrated move in game. When Reckoning procs, your 2h if you got a 3.3 or faster weapon with Seal of the Crusader, you should hit all 4 times. When you're out of range, you can close distance with Repentance, then Hammer of Justice to have a few seconds to tear your target apart. The only time you should use a seal other than Crusader is to quickly Judgement of Rightcheousness to finish people off if Hammer of Wrath fails for any reason. In instances (if you're accepted), buff like there's no tomorrow, that's why they accepted you most likely, and just keep Judgement of Crusader on your target (unless the groups is all shadow priests and afflicty warlocks) and use Seal of the Crusader. Soloing, Judge Crusader, Seal of the Crusader, and Hammer of Justice if you feel like it. With Imp Devo Aura, Deflection, and Toughness, you should last a while, and you can always heal if your health actually gets low. Crits: Improved Seal of the Crusader (when judged), 3%, Sanctified Seals, 3%, Conviction, 5%. 11% crit chance gets thrown on top of your gear. I think it's a good idea. TALENT CHOICES: Imp Devo Aura: The auras as I stated should be defensive, and with improved you'll last longer, and people in instances actually like you. Precision: We all know that the only time you miss is when you really don't want to miss. This remedies it a bit. Toughness: Once again, defensive stuff. Kings: If you skip over it everyone hates you. Trust me. Imp Rightcheous Fury: Reduces damage taken, so more defensive stuff. Imp Hammer of Justice: Very nice to have in pvp. Reckoning: Come on, attack twice with a 2 hander that has plus attack power from Seal of the Crusader, what's not to love? Imp Blessing of Might: This tree is based around Seal of the Crusader attack power and Blessing of Might attack power, so it's a good idea to have more attack power. Also rogues and dps warriors will like you a lot. Imp Seal of the Crusader: MORE ATTACK POWER, also when 2.3 comes out it will raise crit chance, which is nice. Deflection: More defensive soloing/pvp stuff. Vindication: Good at everything except bosses that are immune to it, because it makes them hit not quite so hard. Conviciton: Melee crit chance is nice when your specced for melee dps only. Crusade: 3% extra damage against humans is very good I'd say. 2 hander spec: With a mainly melee DPS tree, this is very nice. Vengence: Extra damage when you crit, supplemented by Conviction earlier. Sanctfied Seals: +3% crit and makes it so your seals don't get dispelled. It may not sound like much unless you've gone against a dispell happy priest or purge happy shaman. Even without that, it still has 3% crit, which is awesome. Repentance: VERY USEFUL in closing distance, because Pallys aren't a great ranged class, and you can use it then heal. TALENTS I DECIDED AGAINST: Benediction: Because you won't be spamming judgements and seals, except to start a battle, or to recast Seal of the Crusader every 30 seconds. Imp Judgement: Once again you aren't spamming judgement. Seal of Command: The spec is about Crusader, and Seal of Command sucks without Crusader Strike anyway. Also Command doesn't work with Reckoning, as it only procs on the first hit of the double swing. Pursuit of Justice: It's good, but not worth the 3 points. Eye for an Eye: It kind of sucks. Imp Ret Aura: This talent is mostly useful for tanking, and not much else. Sanctity Aura: You won't be doing any holy damage, and smite priests are very rare. GEAR: Most important is attack power. With decent gear, and Blessing of Might plus Seal of the Crusader, you can get close to or over 2000 AP (I've seen over). After that go for Crit rating, because it's nice for melee, especially with Vengence. Go for Stam next, because it gives you more health. Hit rating's okay, but once you get 99% chance to hit on 72, you can stop. (In other words, pretend you're a fury warrior.) (WotLK will bring Pursuit of Justice, a point in Benediction, Crusader Strike, and Divine Strength.) Without further ado, here is the spec: 0/25/36 Category:Guides Category:Paladins Category:Talents Category:Paladin Talents